THE seizure of 10,000 textbooks meant for free distribution in Old Town of Dhaka and the detention of two people involved in ferrying the books in the afternoon on January 23 is worrying on three counts. The Detective Branch seized the books that were being carried in two trucks at Bangal Bazar. The two people detained in this connection are reported to be members of a syndicate that stockpiles textbooks, meant for distribution to primary and secondary students, in warehouses at the place. One of the detained is said to be owning bookshops and two warehouses, where textbooks are stored. The Detective Branch says that during a preliminary interrogation, the detained admitted to having committed the crime and named other members of the syndicate. Based on the information, the police say that they have identified other individuals responsible for the irregularities in distribution and transport and are trying to bust the syndicate and arrest the syndicate members. The detained bought, as the police say, the books for Tk 10鈥�12 each for sales later for Tk 80鈥�85. The books that were seized could be worth about Tk 800,000, the police say.
Neither the number nor the costs of the book seized, in fact, do matter when the National Curriculum and Textbook Board is printing about 410.5 million copies of textbooks involving a cost of Tk 17.5 billion in all, which is up from its initial budget of Tk 12 billion, as reports in November said. The textbook board could so far distribute 27.8 per cent of the books by the first week of January, with the authorities having claimed that they could complete textbook distribution by the end of January, suggesting that the students could use textbooks uploaded on the board鈥檚 site in the portable document format. But, the incident at hand leaves the government to do is to bust the syndicate at play, find out the people in the board and others involved in the process who could make the books available outside the channel whether by stealing or in exchange for money and establish if the textbooks are pirated, or printed beyond the official channel, especially when three-fourths of the students are yet to receive the textbooks. It appears natural that with shortage of textbooks persisting, especially at a given time or period, textbooks could either be stolen or made available with the collusion of board people or pirated. Any of the propositions is illegal and the government needs to adequately deal with the matter.
It is, therefore, important for the government to establish whether it is a case of stealing, leaking or piracy. It is, then, imperative for the government to hold individuals or quarters, within the board and outside, to justice effectively to head off the recurrence of such incidents. The government should learn that it is the board鈥檚 failure to complete the printing and distribution of textbooks in time that has given birth to such a situation.